By Phil Roberts
I’ve been thinking of the “good days” in Egypt today–after walking around this afternoon in biting Wyoming fall winds.
Cairo has years’ worth of antiquities to explore even though the city is modern compared to the nearby Giza pyramids and sites like nearby Memphis, the largest city in Egypt (and the world) in the Old Kingdom (2700-2200 B.C.E.) Cairo held that distinction in the early 1300s.
Transportation always seems chaotic in Cairo, but once one becomes familiar with the subway system (first opened in 1987, one of only two subways in the early 2000s in Africa—the other being in Algiers), there was no need to hail a cab or bother Hassan, our driver, who worked for several other faculty and families at the university.
After taking the metro from Sadat station (Tahrir) down to Mir Girgis several times, the 2 ½ mile stretch each way proved to be a nice daily walk. Most times, I’d veer off to explore some site just off the path—I’d want to get a close-up look at some mosque or church, the minarets or spires showing over trees, high garden walls, half-finished flats and shops, clotheslines, and TV antennas and dishes. One walk took me past the British War cemetery, gravestones arranged neatly in rows and bushes and trees with grounds that appeared to be regularly manicured.
The first time, I didn’t notice the smaller cemetery to the back, next door to a monastery, under one large tree, with gravestones appearing to be broken and strewn about the unkempt yard. Only later did I find out that the spot was the Cairo American cemetery. And there were Wyoming connections there—naturally!
I was reminded of the place last month when I noticed a New York Times obituary for a well-known theatrical producer. The obit noted that the woman’s parents, a prominent Baltimore couple, had died in an airplane crash in Egypt in May 1963. They were returning to meet their tour ship in Alexandria after spending a couple of extra days at the Cairo Museum (a not-uncommon response from museum connoisseurs in any age!)
After minimal research, I found that the bodies of those killed in the terrible accident were never recovered, but memorial gravestones were erected in the honor of the American couple on the grounds of the Cairo American cemetery.
Nearby were markers dating to 1913—for William Whiting Borden, a wealthy young philanthropist-turned-missionary, who was en route to a China mission when he died in Cairo (age 26); memorial stones for Kathy Lorimer and Ann Weir, young American teachers in Alexandria who died in a bus-train collision while returning there from Cairo in 1985; and a couple of long-time Cairenes with American ties, one who had been a missionary, Charles Clarence Adams, (d. 1948), and another, a diplomat with the American embassy, Ralph F. Chesebrough, (d. 1935). There is a Detroit-born performance artist buried there, James Lee Byars, an archaeologist Dr. George Reisner, Jr., (d. 1942) and AUC’s sixth president, Dr. Christopher Thoron (d. 1974). There was at least one professor, Dr. Edward Abbott Van Dyke (d. 1938).
And, not at all surprising to anyone from Wyoming, several of the fewer than 100 marked burials had Wyoming ties: John and Patricia Gasperetti, John (b. 1920, d. 2017) from Colorado, but once having lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming; retired missionary Rev. John Giffen (b. 1846, d. 1922)—his daughter Mrs. F. W. Phifer lived in Wheatland, Wyoming, at the time of his death in Cairo. In fact, Giffen’s obituary noted that he had retired and was planning to leave Cairo for Wheatland to live with his daughter’s family.
The spot was quiet but shabby at the time I peeked in through the fences in the early 2000s. From web accounts, it appears much has been done to return it to better care—at least, comments and the photos on the web appear to show greater attention now to American deceased far away from home shores.